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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29891295">As God would touch the clay</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/fifthnorthumberland/pseuds/fifthnorthumberland'>fifthnorthumberland</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>As God would touch the clay [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Old Guard (Movie 2020)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>M/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 17:26:42</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>394</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29891295</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/fifthnorthumberland/pseuds/fifthnorthumberland</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Joe is besotted with Nicky and it’s the easiest thing in the world. It comes as natural as soaking in sunlight and as sleeping when tired, it’s the most tender indulgence, but it is an indulgence. </p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>As God would touch the clay [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2197767</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>60</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>As God would touch the clay</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Joe is besotted with Nicky and it’s the easiest thing in the world. It comes as natural as soaking in sunlight and as sleeping when tired, it’s the most tender indulgence, but it is an indulgence. </p><p>Nicky is human and therefore not perfect and Joe is not an idealist, but he is an artist and in his quest for images and shapes and sounds that please the senses, he edits reality to represent what he likes from it. Through ever new medium he has learned over the years, he has represented Nicky, Nicholas, Nicolò. His lover’s body has been drawn in charcoal on parchment, printed on photosensitive paper, revealed through chemical processes Joe cannot remember, sculpted and cast in bronze, painted in oils. He has been written about and described and worshipped through poetry and fiction and letters, the thesis of many essays and the conclusion of theological queries. </p><p>Nicky has been Joe’s favourite answer to the question of creation, both manmade and divine, for centuries. In the canon of romance, their story is easily the longest, but it has certainly not been the easiest. Joe forgets Nicky’s days and weeks of being irritated and selfish because he is also full of grace and kindness. He eschews harsh words and lines about Nicky because though his husband may be momentarily harsh and forgetful, it is only a reaction to an endlessly harsh world. Nicky is human and flawed and Joe loves him more than anything he could create perfectly because he is Nicky. Nicholas, Nicolò. </p><p>Because Nicky’s body can be like clay under Joe’s hands, pliable and smooth, responsive and earthy, but Joe can never change the shape of him. Joe is besotted, but he isn’t foolish enough to believe he could wield minerals and water, silt and air, and whatever souls are made of, to such a fine and cracked beauty as Nicky’s. Living with him, fighting with him, cooking and eating with him, sleeping and making love with him, belonging with him; those are all hard won and only rarely taken for granted. Time has destroyed almost all of Joe’s work and will continue to erode at his creations, but what they make together, he and Nicky, that is real and unedited and it’s the most beautiful thing Joe couldn’t possibly imagine. It is divine and holy and entirely human and flawed.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>The title is from his verse of the poem <a>A Million Women are your Mother</a>  by Saniyya Saleh:</p><p>Plunge your head into me,<br/>penetrate me<br/>until our bones almost intertwine.<br/>Let us be next to each other,<br/>interlaced like the heart’s duality.<br/>Touch me as God would touch the clay<br/>and I will turn into a human being in a flash.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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